SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – Sophomore midfielder Mackenna Cooke (Old Saybrook, Conn.) scored in the seventh minute of sudden-victory overtime amid pouring rain to give the Wheaton College (Mass.) field hockey team a 3-2 victory over host Mount Holyoke College this afternoon in New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference action on the Mount Holyoke Turf in South Hadley, Mass.
The Lyons improve to 5-12 overall and 2-6 in conference play, while MHC dips to 8-9 and 1-7.
Wheaton was able to come away with the win, despite the host Lyons' advantages in shots (21-13), shots on goal (14-9) and penalty corners (10-4).
Senior forward Anda Brown (South Woodstock, Vt.) and junior forward Delia Knox (Cumberland Center, R.I.) also scored for Wheaton, which broke up a four-game losing streak and defeated Mount Holyoke for the first time in 11 meetings. The Lyons' last win against Mount Holyoke occurred in 2011.
Senior Amanda Thibodeau (Lebanon, N.H.) and junior Jayonna Montigny (Enfield, Conn.) scored for MHC and graduate student Laurissa Montigny (Enfield, Conn.) had an assist.
The game-ending goal occurred on a Wheaton penalty corner, inserted by Knox. An initial shot from the outside by junior midfielder Lydia Gaudreau (Gorham, Maine) was saved by MHC junior goalie Rachel Katzenberg (Reisterstown, Md.), who then came farther out of the goal to smother a follow-up attempt. The ball came out to Cooke in front, who one-timed a shot inside the right post to end the game.
Both teams missed multiple chances to score in the second half of the game, including penalty stroke misses by both sides. Wheaton senior keeper Emma Lapreziosa (Bowdoinham, Maine) barely saved Laurissa Montigny's penalty stroke in the third quarter, making an initial stop and then barely keeping the ball from dribbling over the goal line. In overtime, Katzenberg had a sprawling save of a penalty stroke by junior Macey Poitras-Cote (Northborough, Mass.) for the Lyons.
Mount Holyoke led 1-0 after Thibodeau's goal in the 12th minute. Thibodeau punched the ball in from in front after a baseline drive and pass from Laurissa Montigny, for her third assist of the season and Thibodeau's second goal.
Wheaton was held without a shot or penalty corner through the first quarter, but Brown tied the game at 1-1 in the 18th minute with an assist from Gaudreau, on Wheaton's first shot and first corner of the game.
Mount Holyoke regained the lead less than three minutes later. Jayonna Montigny was stuffed by Lapreziosa on two point-blank shots, but she tracked the ball again and scored on her third attempt. Her 10th goal of the season tied Laurissa Montigny for the team lead. No other Mount Holyoke player has scored more than eight goals in a season since Diana Banmann netted 15 in 2013.
Wheaton erased Mount Holyoke's lead for a second time in the 38th minute, when Knox tallied her fourth goal of the season from out of a mixer 12 feet in front of the Mount Holyoke goal.
Katzenberg finished the game with six saves from halftime on. Senior Leah Manning (Durham, N.H.) started in goal for Mount Holyoke and gave up one goal in the first half. First-year Linnea Alsted (Crownsville, Md.) also tallied a defensive save, her fourth this season.
Lapreziosa had 12 saves for Wheaton.
Wheaton hosts University of Southern Maine on Nordin Field on Tuesday, October 24 at 7:00 p.m., while Mount Holyoke heads to Springfield, Mass. on the same and time to play Western New England University.
